Petty theft is endemic in all the major cities and along the Côte d'Azur. Drivers, particularly with foreign number-plates or in rental cars with Parisian registration, face a high risk of break-ins. Vehicles are rarely stolen, but car radios and luggage make tempting targets.
It obviously makes sense to take the normal
precautions: not flashing wads of notes or travellers' cheques around; carrying your bag or wallet securely; never letting cameras and other valuables out of your sight; and parking your car overnight in an attended garage or within sight of a police station. But the best security is having a good insurance policy, keeping a separate record of cheque numbers, credit card numbers and the phone numbers for cancelling them , and the relevant details of all your valuables.
If you need to
report a theft, go along to the commissariat de police, where they will fill out a
constat de vol . The first thing they'll ask for is your passport, and vehicle documents if relevant. Although the police are not always as co-operative as they might be, it is their duty to assist you if you've lost your passport or all your money.
If you have an
accident while driving, you have officially to fill in and sign a constat à l'aimable
(jointly agreed statement); car insurers are supposed to give you this with the policy, though in practice few seem to have heard of it. For
non-criminal driving offences such as speeding, the police can impose an on-the-spot fine.
People caught smuggling or possessing drugs, even a few grams of marijuana, are liable to find themselves in jail, and consulates will not be sympathetic. This is not to say that hard-drug consumption isn't a visible activity: there are scores of kids dealing in poudre (heroin) in the big French cities and the authorities seem unable to do much about it. As a rule, people are no more nor less paranoid about cannabis busts than they are in the UK or North America.
Should you be arrested on any charge, you have the right to contact your consulate.
Emergency Numbers in France
Fire brigade ( pompiers ) tel 18. Medical emergencies tel 15. Police tel 17. Rape crisis ( SOS Viol ) tel 08.00.05.95.95. AIDS information (SIDA Info Service) tel 08.00.84.08.00.
All these numbers are free
The two main types of
police - the Police Nationale and the Gendarmerie Nationale - are for all practical purposes indistinguishable. The CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité), on the other hand, are an entirely different proposition. They are a mobile force of paramilitary heavies, used to guard sensitive embassies, "control" demonstrations and generally intimidate the populace on those occasions when the public authorities judge that it is stepping out of line. Armed with guns, CS gas and truncheons, they have earned themselves a reputation for brutality over the years, particularly at those moments when the tensions inherent in the long civil war of French politics have reached boiling point. Not quite in the same league, but with an ugly recent history, is the separate
Paris police force. This bunch are prone to pulling up "nonconformists" - often just ordinary teenagers and black people - for identity checks. You can be stopped anywhere in France and asked to produce ID. If it happens to you, it's not worth being difficult or facetious. The police can also be rather sensitive on political issues: a few years ago a group of Danish students wearing "Chirac Non!" T-shirts against the French nuclear tests in the Pacific were surrounded on their arrival in France, accompanied in force to their hotel and made to change.
Lastly, in the Alps or Pyrenees, you may come across specialized mountaineering sections of the police force. They are unfailingly helpful, friendly and approachable, providing rescue services and guidance but they don't always speak English.
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